Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Wednesday Drive By: Routine Business

Wow... it's really been almost 3 months since I've posted something?! I have to say, the last 6 months have been filled with heavy stuff in my personal life - with my health, with my family and friends. I'm still processing a lot of it but for the first time in a long time I'm feeling like I'm in the light, rather than the tunnel.

Me being me, this has been a time of deep introspection and there's been some niggling thoughts bouncing around that would be great for a 'new year' post, or a 'what I learned', or 'How to pick yourself up by the bootstraps, Bootstrap' type thing...

But now's not that time... mainly because I've been short on time to grab one of those niggly thoughts and pin it down long enough to make any sense out of it that wouldn't completely confirm my residence in Crazy Town... Granted if you've been around me long enough, ya'll know I have a lovely home set up there and you're welcome to visit any time.

But I digress.

So instead of a super duper long rambly post, I'll just share something that came about from a discussion with some of my Fly-baby friends. It sort of fits in with the whole new year/get at it/get back at it thing... sort of. :)

Been thinking about routines and habits and how so may of us resist it. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why.

Routines are just the activities we do every day that promote a certain outcome.Coming home, tossing your stuff here and there and not picking it up, leaving dishes in the sink, waiting till there's a pile of laundry as tall as you to do wash... all promote the outcome a cluttered house and a frantic, anxiety driven life...

Yeah, I saved time right now by not doing it but spent a ton of time later digging for that bill, or digging out the sink so I could cook dinner... you get the idea.

Or I could take a few extra minutes to put the clean out the sink after dinner, put my stuff away when I walk in the door, stand at the dining room table for 2 minutes to toss stuff that doesn't belong there, set my clothes out before I go to bed... that promotes a little bit calmer, peaceful, less cluttered home.

Same with developing habits/routines about your health. You can stay in bed (which you need rest if you're in burnout, but that's a whoooole different story for a different day...), rush around in the morning and grab the closest thing you can get your hand out for 'food', swing through the drive through for lunch and make awesome friends with the waiter at your local eatery... then plop on the couch because you're too tired, too over fed and too under nurished to do anything.... over, and over and over again...

(speaking for myself here, not about anyone else, just to clarify.)

Or you can bite the bullet, do menu planning, go shopping to have things on hand to eat so you feel better to be able to get out for a walk or to lift heavy things when the mood strikes... over, and over, and over again.

Realizing it takes time to develop new routines that promote less clutter, less weight, less debt, whatever, I was more inclined to do what I needed to, do the little things every day that add up to bigger things rather than 1-2 big things once in a random blue moon while, things slowly got better.

It takes time. It requires change (oooh, I know... them's fightin' words... I mean, I know if you're reading this, *you* don't need to change... but *I* need it... and this is all about me, right? ;) It also requires starting _small_, really getting one or two things down pat before moving on to the next thing.

If you don't let go of the old way of doing things, you can open your arms to embrace something new and wonderful.

Isn't that what 'new year' is all about? Being new? Being wonderful? Seeing the possibilities in front of you AND taking action to achieve it? Or is that just me?